Expert Witness Blog
National Medical Consultants represents a panel of over 1900 distinguished specialists in all areas of medicine including vascular surgery expert witnesses. In Medical malpractice liability reform-no easy task experts at National Medical Consultants write:
Few people would disagree that the current state-specific medical liability systems throughout the United States are slated for significant changes to address what many have termed the “medical malpractice crisis.” Although there seems to be consensus regarding the breadth of the so-called crisis and the need for successful reform, there is little agreement regarding which methods of change will result in the most effective strategy for medical malpractice reform. The fact that more than 400 legislative bills on this topic were filed in 48 states in 2005 is indicative of the diverse, and oftentimes contentious, solutions to reform.
The numerous solutions suggested by state legislators illustrate that medical malpractice reform is a multidimensional issue that cannot be resolved with one distinct strategy. Legislators must take a number of factors into consideration when proposing medical malpractice reform strategies, making the task both complex and controversial. Among the many elements that factor into the reform strategies are economics (eg, rising health care costs, increased medical malpractice insurance premiums, jury awards in malpractice lawsuits); patient rights (eg, access to quality health care, compensation for negligent medical acts); regulatory aspects (eg, of physicians, the insurance industry, attorneys); and the affect of the proposed law on existing laws both at the state and federal levels.